Women's Fencing

Yale Athletics Department Honors Srinivas at Senior Varsity Dinner

May 24, 2007

May 24, 2007

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -
Five seniors and one team were honored by the Yale Athletics Department with awards at the annual Senior Varsity Dinner Thursday night in Commons. Swimmer Kent Garber (Atlanta, Ga.), cross country/track athlete Cara Kiernan (Vienna, Va.) and fencer Tejas Srinivas (Ridgewood, N.J.) received the Kiphuth Student-Athlete Distinction Award. Steve Bassermann (Branford, Conn.) of the football team and Kristin Savard (Framingham, Mass.) of the women's ice hockey team received the Ford Student-Athlete Community Outreach Award. Additionally, the women's cross country team won the Brodhead Award for highest team GPA.

The Kiphuth Award, given to the male and female student-athletes who rank highest in scholarship and have earned two varsity letters prior to their senior year, is named in honor of DeLaney Kiphuth '41, M.A. '47. Kiphuth served as Director of Athletics from 1954 through 1976.

Garber, a linguistics major, helped the Yale men's swimming team register the fifth-highest GPA in the country. Kiernan, a history of science/history of medicine major, was one of Yale's top distance runners and took part in the NCAAs as a freshman. Srinivas, a political science major, helped Yale to an 18-9 win over Princeton -- Yale's first victory vs. the Tigers in five years -- by going 2-1 in epee competition.

The Ford Award is given annually to the male and female student-athletes who during the past four years have demonstrated their commitment to strengthening the relationship between Yale Athletics and the youth in the New Haven community. It is named in honor of Thomas W. Ford '42, who endowed the Yale Department of Athletics Community Outreach Program in the fall of 1996.

Bassermann, an offensive lineman who helped the Bulldogs to an Ivy League title last fall, was involved with multiple aspects of Yale's Thomas W. Ford '42 Community Outreach Program, including Youth Days, holiday toy drives and more. Savard, who captained the hockey team, received the Hockey Humanitarian Award in April for her community work. In addition to taking part in Yale's Community Outreach Program, she founded "Teaming Up," an organization dedicated to raising awareness and funds for maternal health issues in South Africa.

The Brodhead Award is named in honor of Richard H. Brodhead '68, Ph.D. '72, who served as Dean of Yale College from 1993 through 2004 and was on the faculty of the department of English for over 30 years. The women's cross country team, which finished 6th at the ECAC championship, earned the award with a team GPA of 3.54. This is the third time in four years that team has won the award.